Art in the mohalla

This is Shacklewell Lane.

On the corner of Shacklewell Lane, London E8, where Kingsland curves into Hackney this advertisement for Boyd Pianos has long remained. Peeling wallpaper from a time past. And then overnight this graffiti/art arrived. I believe it is Fidel Castro who made his first official appearance in four years yesterday, warning of the threat of nuclear war.

The very modern advertisment above is for the Pekünlü mini-market where I often shop.

more Practical Wonders ...

...tweehouses for birds

(this community lives at Colebrooke Row, London N1 8AA)

A pale half-moon hangs still in the daylit sky

A pale half-moon hanging in the sky, winking down on Hackney Downs near my home.

Solstice

I will be on home turf in Yorkshire tomorrow for some Yorkshire nuptuals! The summer is blooming out all over (including as a fever of hay in my nose), and it really is a wonderful English Summer's Day in all its glory!

By coincidence the wedding takes place in a small hamlet in West Yorkshire where, as a child, my extended family had tradition of gathering annually on/around the Winter Solstice to meet pre-Noel and congratulate my Uncle John on his birthday. I will be back again tomorrow in splendid Burley-in-Whafedale, just as we climb to the approach of the Summer Solstice, to attend my friend Lucy's own turning of a landmark in personal time.

I am reminded of the last wedding I attended. Not least by once again looking to the skies, as I did on my bicycle this morning and seeing a pale half-moon hanging up there in sun-lit morning sky - an image of this captivating but not uncommon phenomena inspired the opening image for the poem I wrote for that (last) wedding. The wedding was in Taiwan - a wonderful country, which I should also share of through writing one day - and was the wedding of my very good friend Yu-wei Chang to Yu-Shian.



Here is the poem I wrote for Yu-wei's wedding on 13 December 2009 - just, of course, as the Winter Solstice was in keen approach.




Your gravity, your grace have turned a tide
In me, no lunar power can reverse;

- Jonathan Coe, 'Somniloquy'

A pale half-moon hangs still in the daylit sky
Graceful, beautiful, ephemeral,
Celebratory of all that is Yes.
Its pale possession, the joy in the essence: we're
alive, and love, and can.

I have stood with you among the Art, at the River also,
Against the stand-grained sky
Swoop and sail birds, pepper-sprinkled, and kites.
A kite somersaults in deadly straits above the Ganga calm.

This, is the great river
The source, the journey, our ultimate.
Children cry, running helter-skelter at its side
Holding hands, grasping, clasping at kites.
We are them; and they are us.

And so they watched on
With pride, and with molten hearts
Tears-occasional prickling
As the two breathed
Spoke, and breath again. Together
And made promises of love
And honour and truth and beauty.
And promised. To cherish from this day forward
Tapestry-bound for the fabric of their lives.
Yet, when you love and are loved
You remain to extent immortal.

Come. Do not let go my hand.

6 May 2010

A multi-coloured elephant. I'd like parliament to look a bit more like this!

These pictures were taken on election day, 6 May 2010, on New Bond Street in central London. It was 6pm in the evening, and I was cycling from work to my friend Kitty's for our election night party. For cider and wine, wasabi and guacamole; and to watch unfold how the nation had spoken - and, conversely, how this would translate into the new nature of the beast that is parliament.

I *heart* Stokey @16C!

The mood of London and the temperament of its citizens change with the weather.

Today: it's the sunniest Saturday of the year so far, and the people are out! 11am down Ridley Road market, and a young pecked-up stall holder has his shirt off and is getting the sun-protection cream on. Optimism is in the air! To the sound of steel drums, Stoke Newington Church Street was re-opened (having been closed to traffic over the winter for improvement works), and the local political parties were out - taking the first official breaths in their pre-election marketeering. "I *heart* Stokey" balloons garlanded Church Street, and some floated into the stratosphere to the rolling notes of the Nostalgic Steel Band.

The Green Party had a very positive and impressive stand. The ruling Labour Party (on behalf of Diane Abbott MP) were looking confident. The red balloons celebrating the new tarmac sung in their favour. I was disappointed to find only a girl in a blue dress handing out smiley stickers on behalf of the Liberal Democrats. Other LibDem representatives were also lingering, but on request - no literature. The Green Party seemed much more organised and on the ball. Subject to close-reading of their literature, for the first time perhaps they have my local vote.

I will celebrate my first election in solo autonomous living with my colours in the window. (LOL: My mum would say I should clean the windows first!) - I will go for two colours!(green & yellow) - But please Hackney LibDems, raise your game.

Stokey really was a-buzz; it felt like everyone was out. A craft fair in Abney Hall, a produce market with tasties if you could grab them, ripe blossom, red balloons buoyant and the red ribbon being cut. Church Street is open again, and the summer (and the election) is ON!

the urban_djinn's GUIDE TO CYCLING IN THE SNOW

1. WEAR your woolly hat underneath your helmet. This will keep your ears warm and stop your hair getting in a catastrophic wet mess.
2. WEAR your best trekking boots, lest you get caught in a snow drift!
3. You are gonna have to compromise today and TAKE THE MAIN ROADS. Resist the usual snickets, cuts and routes that stop you having to talk to the big bad traffic. The snow will stick to the side roads and may conceal deadly black ice which will make you slip on your arse&wheels ... !
4. Since you will have to talk to the vehicular traffic today and work with its rhythm, sorry but you cannot wear your iPod today.
5. Use the red lights to your advantage - after careful checking take the chance here to get ahead of the traffic.
6. BE CHEERFUL!
7. DO NOT ride up anyone's rear end - your brakes will not be so nifty today due to the wet surfaces.
8. On arrival to the office, BREW fresh coffee and EAT Belgian chocolates! :-)
9. Good luck & enjoy!